by Park, J. R.
His breathing grew shallow and quick as his thoughts paraded a carnival of nightmarish scenarios.
Had he upset an already unstable maniac? A psycho that had hit him round the head, stripped him of his clothes and belongings then locked him in their house?
Had he heard the victim next door, scratching at the walls, desperate to escape from a terrible end?
Terrified, the young man looked around for a weapon but could find nothing suitable. Taking the plate from the wall and brandishing it as best he could like a club he crouched behind the bed and waited.
A key turned in the lock.
The door creaked open spilling light from the hallway into the room.
Silhouetted against the backlit hall stood a large figure, six foot in height with broad shoulders that tapered into thick set, powerful arms. The shadow’s hands opened and closed into large fists, its knuckles cracking with each clench. Its breath was heavy and laboured as it stood in the doorway, blocking Benjamin’s escape with its monstrous frame.
A click sounded as one of the huge hands flicked the light switch revealing the gentle pastel greens and pinks of the room’s furnishings. The light filled in the detail of the silhouette uncovering a warm, welcoming smile that beamed from her whole face.
She was tall and stocky in build, but despite her intimidating size the woman in the doorway showed no signs of malice. She looked to be in her late thirties, but Benjamin found it hard to tell, by his reckoning anyone over twenty five was old. Her hair was brown and rolled into large curls that ended at her shoulders. She wore a floral dress awash with a rainbow of summer shades, whilst her hands sparkled with bejeweled rings. Her fingers ended in finely tipped, painted nails that showed signs of great care and attention. Her smile was enhanced by thick, red lipstick and her soft, friendly eyes were lightly decorated with subtle, green eye shadow.
‘You’re awake,’ she sounded pleased, ‘my name’s Cassie.’
‘Where am I?’ Benjamin asked, standing up and putting the plate on the bed, ashamed to have been found holding his temporary weapon to such a sweet woman.
‘You’re safe, Benjamin,’ Cassie answered as she walked through the doorway.
‘How do you know my name?’ Benjamin asked, startled.
‘I emptied your pockets when I put you to bed. I looked through your wallet. I thought I might find a contact number in there. I hope you don’t mind,’ Cassie looked to the floor with an air of embarrassment.
‘No, that’s fine,’ Benjamin replied.
‘Oh dear,’ Cassie muttered as she bent down and picked up a mousetrap in the corner of the room.
The trap had sprung shut and held the mangled body of a rodent tightly between its metal snap and wooden base.
‘I thought we’d got rid of all the mice. I hope they didn’t wake you,’ she said as she turned back to Benjamin, ‘always scuttling about between the walls.’
‘I must go,’ he said with urgency.
But as the words left his lips he began to feel woozy. The terror had subsided but so had the adrenalin in his blood stream, leaving him to face the aches and fatigue he’d woken with.
‘Oh no, you are in no fit state to go anywhere,’ Cassie sounded tender as she moved towards him, ‘you’ve suffered a blow to the head. Walking around is the last thing you should be doing.’
‘I heard banging,’ Benjamin said as his body grew heavy on his legs and his concentration waned, overcome with exhaustion.
‘Oh that’s me doing housework,’ Cassie explained, ‘lovely thick walls between houses means I can be as loud as I like and the neighbours can’t hear a thing. Not so in the confines of your own house. Sorry if it bothered you, I’m not used to guests.’
‘That’s okay,’ Benjamin slurred as his head rolled on his neck.
His eyes lost focus and his vision began to dim. He stumbled then fell forward, blacking out before he hit the floor.
2
Daylight penetrated the weave of the curtains and gently lit the room. The whir of a vacuum cleaner could be heard elsewhere in the house, a familiar sound that reminded Benjamin of home.
He woke with less anguish this time and enjoyed the softness of the mattress he had sunk into. He rubbed the graze on his chin, an injury from when he blacked out the night before. If it wasn’t for the gnawing urges of hunger and the pressures of a full bladder Benjamin could have stayed in bed for a few hours more.
He placed his feet on the floor and found himself to be much more steady. The rest had done him good. His head was still tender but it had stopped throbbing. He glanced in the mirror to see Cassie had put a fresh bandage on him, still gleaming white, and his chin, although grazed was only painful to the touch and showed no visible signs of damage.
Neatly folded and still warm from the tumble dryer, Benjamin found his purple t-shirt on the dresser. By the bed he discovered his socks and shoes. Putting them on he instantly felt less vulnerable.
He practiced a smile in the mirror and, satisfied with his reflection, opened the bedroom door, pleased this time to find it unlocked.
The door creaked open to reveal a bright and airy house. The sunlight poured in through the windows and danced on the cheerful colours of the vibrant, homely decor. Benjamin took a big breath, enjoying the clean and fragrant atmosphere; a mixture of air fresheners and scented cleaning products met his senses. He thought back to when his mum was still alive and how the house used to smell on a Sunday morning. She’d get up early to complete the housework before she started on the roast dinner.
His thoughts turned to food and his mouth watered with desire.
‘Good morning my dear,’ Cassie called from below.
She was on her hands and knees at the foot of the stairs, an apron around her dress and yellow marigolds protecting her hands. Beside her was a bowl of piping hot water and bleach. The patch of carpet in front of her was damp and soap suds frothed on top of the nylon surface.
‘Are you feeling better?’ Cassie asked with a smile as she stopped her scrubbing and rose to her feet.
‘Okay, I think,’ Benjamin replied, ‘can I use your toilet?’
‘Straight along the corridor,’ she called back and returned to her cleaning.
He stifled a yawn as he made his way across the landing.
What door did she say?
He didn’t like to admit his rudeness of yawning whilst she answered and not catching her full explanation. Not to worry, he thought, I’ll just try each door in turn.
He stopped in front of the first one he came to and took hold of the handle.
Before he could turn the knob a large, heavy hand grabbed his wrist. Benjamin froze instantly and turned to see Cassie stood beside him.
‘What are you doing?’ Cassie shouted at him, her face going red with anger.
‘I-I-I-I,’ Benjamin was shocked by her outrage.
The face that had been so kind and welcoming seemed to twist with a seething temper. Her features that before seemed soft and rounded with a jelly-like layer of fat, hardened and cracked in a vile grimace. He took a step back through fear, unsure how to react.
But as quickly as it came the anger melted into a smile.
‘Not that one,’ she spoke with an eerie self-control, ‘that one.’
Cassie pointed to a door at the far end of the corridor.
Unsettled by her mood swing, Benjamin hurried along to the bathroom and relieved his bladder. He looked out the window over the front garden. It was a middle class, suburban street like any other. Red brick houses, each one the same as the next with matching driveways and a neighbourhood watch sign on the lamppost. He didn’t recognise it, but this kind of street had clones all over the country. In the distance he could see the statue and fountains by the Harbourside. At least he was in the right city. A quick call for a taxi and he’d be home.
Stepping out of the bathroom he found Cassie waiting for him on the landing, she had removed her rubber gloves and was picking at the dirt under her fingern
ails. She smiled at him again, but this time it seemed forced.
She pointed to each door in turn as she spoke:
‘My bedroom, the bathroom, the guest room. These two,’ she said pointing at two other doors between the guest room and her bedroom, ‘are off limits. I moved house and just left a lot of things dumped in there. It’s better than paying for storage. There’s so much piled up,’ she heeded, ‘if you burst into one of those rooms you might have the whole world come crashing down on top of you.’
‘Okay,’ Benjamin laughed nervously as he tried to make polite conversation and ease the situation, ‘it’s so easy to accumulate stuff. I’m terrible for it. And when it becomes part of your history it can be so hard to let go and just throw it away.’
His words came out forced and contrived but they both nodded in agreement and made their way to the stairs.
The second storage room had a fabric rose pinned to the door. Benjamin eyed this with interest as he passed by, wondering over the delicate detail that made up the bloom’s folds. With his concentration momentarily captured by the handmade marvel he was not prepared for a sudden disturbance and jumped with shock when a growl erupted from the other side of the door.
‘What the hell?’ Benjamin asked as he leapt back.
‘Oh don’t worry about that,’ Cassie reassured him, ‘I have a pet dog in there. She’s not very well so I’m keeping her somewhere quiet and out of the way. I don’t want her to get distressed. She’s perfectly safe; I keep the door locked at all times whilst I have guests. But I always keep the key on me so I know exactly where it is. I wouldn’t want to go and lose this,’ Cassie held up a key attached to a dainty necklace that hung round her neck.
Benjamin smiled to himself as he remembered the dog he heard last night in his delirious state. It was amazing how different everything looked and felt after a good night’s sleep.
‘You must be hungry,’ Cassie exclaimed, taking the boy by his hand, ‘I’ve started breakfast. Come downstairs and eat.’
Cassie proved to be a good cook, and the English breakfast that awaited Benjamin could not have been better received. It smelt and tasted wonderful.
Her kitchen was as well-kept as the rest of the house, the sides were clean and the tiled floor mopped. In the middle of the kitchen was a table where they both sat. Benjamin ate his meal whilst he tried to make sense of what had happened the night before.
‘It’s really hazy,’ he began whilst chewing on a sausage, ‘I went out on a date. Arranged to meet a girl I’d been talking to over the Internet. I remember waiting just off from the fountains, you know, by the Harbourside. I can’t remember how long I waited there for but it felt like hours. I exaggerate, but it was a long time.’
‘And did she show?’ Cassie asked.
‘No, at least not that I recall.’
‘Who would stand you up?’ Cassie looked at him longingly, ‘A handsome boy like yourself. You must have the pick of the girls with your beautiful face and sculpted body.’
Benjamin retorted, ‘It takes a lot of work to keep my body in this shape. It’s not too often I have breakfasts like this.’
‘Is it good?’ she asked.
‘Perfect,’ he smiled back, ‘I haven’t had much luck with women. I haven’t had much of a chance to date. My mum was sick for quite some years and it took up most of my spare time to look after her. Not that I begrudge her that. Not at all. It was just the way it was.’
‘Really? I can’t believe that,’ Cassie stood up and began to wipe the kitchen sides down with a cloth and antiseptic spray. She continued to talk, but her eyes stayed focused on her cleaning as she scrubbed at the surface. ‘I bet you’re a little heart breaker. Show the girls your perfect body, give them a smile and a flash of those gorgeous brown eyes, then, when you’ve had your fill it’s on to the next one.’
‘It’s not like that at all,’ Benjamin replied, ‘and yes she stood me up. I waited for ages. The next thing I knew I woke up here.’
‘You poor thing,’ Cassie turned to face him again, ‘I found you on the floor with your head bleeding. You looked so helpless and needed looking after. You were so confused. I didn’t know what to do, so I brought you back here. I hope you don’t mind.’
‘Thank you for looking after me, Cassie,’ he spoke between mouthfuls, ‘most people wouldn’t give a shit. Although you scared the hell out of me when I woke up.’
‘Yes,’ she said in agreement, ‘I found you cowering behind the bed. Were you going to hit me with my holiday souvenir?’
‘Sorry about that,’ the young man said with a look of embarrassment, ‘I freaked out when I woke up. I didn’t know where I was, and what with the door being locked.’
‘That’s my fault,’ Cassie confessed, ‘I keep all my doors locked.’
She walked to the back door and twisted the handle, pulling and pushing the door in its frame, demonstrating its inability to be moved.
‘You see,’ she said, ‘locked. I also have extra strength double-glazing in all my windows. You could smack them with a hammer and they still won’t break. You can’t be too careful. You never know what kind of weirdos are around now-a-days.’
Benjamin continued to eat his breakfast whilst Cassie carried on with her cleaning, wiping the sides and sink. When he had finished the last mouthful he looked up and noticed a mobile phone on the windowsill.
‘Is that mine?’ he asked. ‘The phone, is that mine?’
‘Is it?’ Cassie sounded flustered.
‘Yes that’s mine, it has a chip on the case.’
He stood up from the table and went for his phone. He reached for the device, but it was swiped away by the big hands of Cassie.
‘Here,’ she said, with an air of panic, ‘let me clean it for you. I don’t want you getting all grubby.’
She rolled the phone round and round in her cloth, scrubbing each side and face with meticulous, obsessive care. Handing it back to its owner she gave a satisfied smile, her shoulders relaxed in relief.
‘You can’t be too careful with germs now-a-days,’ she winked, ‘I just need to do so some hoovering, if you’ll excuse me. A clean house doesn’t get that way by itself. You rest and when I’m done tidying I’ll drive you back home.’
With that Cassie left the kitchen and walked upstairs. Moments later the soft drone of the vacuum cleaner hummed in the background.
With his belly full and phone in hand Benjamin Peters felt like a civilized member of the human race once more. He turned his phone on and waited for the messages to come through. The display lit up and the signal meter read it was at full strength, but disappointingly it showed no new messages.
Maybe it was taking a while to reconnect.
He left his phone on the table, walked through the sitting room and upstairs toward the toilet. The second storage room was open slightly and through the crack he could make out Cassie, on her knees, with the hose of the vacuum cleaner in her hand. Not daring to disturb her he continued on and walked past the first storage room, or the dog room as he had named it. The flower’s delicate intricacies still managed to impress him the second time as it hung on the door. But as he walked by something made him stop in his tracks.
He heard a sound. Not just a sound, a sobbing.
Was that really crying he heard coming from the room?
He put his ear to the door. Turning back to look down the corridor he noted it was still empty. The vacuum cleaner continued with its noisy service whilst Cassie seemed completely occupied with her tasks at hand. He thanked the fortune that her cleaning obsession would mask any noise he’d make entering the room.
He knew the door might be locked, but he couldn’t leave someone crying in there. It certainly didn’t sound like a dog. He had to try.
Gently, he gripped the door handle and surely but firmly he began to turn it.
‘Silly you!’
Benjamin jumped as Cassie put her head round the door of the storage room and looked at him, down the corridor.
‘I heard crying,’ he protested.
‘Oh that will be the neighbours and their baby,’ she answered, ‘the walls are so thin.’
Spooked and afraid, Benjamin suddenly became aware of an unpleasant smell that seemed to be wafting around the landing. His eyes watered and he held his nose, unable to hide his disgust.
‘Yes,’ said Cassie, recognising his reaction, ‘dogs are very smelly, ill dogs doubly so. Now have you drunk your orange juice yet? You need your vitamins otherwise you’ll be just as ill. There’s a toilet just off the kitchen, next to the larder if you want to use that one instead.’
His hostess went back to her task in the storage room whilst Benjamin went downstairs, happy to escape the creeping, rotten odour that had attacked his senses.
She was right, he thought as he leant against the kitchen unit, that orange juice was good. Checking his phone again it lay still, yielding no messages. Strange, he thought, what happened to Fi? It was possible she just decided to stand him up, but what if something terrible had happened to her? What if the person that attacked him had attacked her also?
He sat down and began to compose a text message, it needed to sound concerned, but breezy. He didn’t want to come across too heavy.
Hey Fi I went to meet you last night but got mugged. I hope ur ok. Drop me a message and we’ll arrange another date.
Benjamin leant back on his chair, sipped on his orange juice and pressed send. He looked across Cassie’s garden as he ran over the message in his mind, word by word. He analysed every way it could have been interpreted, every tone it could possibly have been taken in. Texting wasn’t always the best way to communicate but in the age of Internet dating and smart phone messaging the telephone call had practically died out.
He heard a phone buzz in the sitting room.